


meeting the parents

by lazyfish



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, Meeting the Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/pseuds/lazyfish
Summary: Piper meets Melinda's mom for the first time.
Relationships: Melinda May/Agent Piper
Comments: 16
Kudos: 26
Collections: Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019





	meeting the parents

Piper stared at her own reflection in the mirror, first smoothing her hair back, then ruffling it up again. She frowned at herself. Nothing quite looked right, but she didn’t have the time to get a haircut before her inevitable dinner with her girlfriend’s mother.

 _Why_ she had agreed to go to Melinda’s mother’s house for dinner was still beyond her. Melinda had warned her, more than once, her mother would probably be shocked by Piper’s… Piper-ness. Which Piper took to mean Melinda’s mother had never met anyone who was even close to the butch end of the spectrum, which was ridiculous, because Piper wasn’t even _that_ butch - she just had short hair and liked leather jackets. _Melinda_ liked leather jackets. If she cut her hair…

Piper sighed, fluffing her hair up again. “Don’t fuck this up,” she said to her mirror-self, furrowing her eyebrows. Melinda liked to pretend she didn’t care what her parents thought, but no matter what her girlfriend thought, she cared about her relationship with her mother more than once.

She exited the bathroom just as Melinda was shrugging on her coat. “Ready to go?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Piper said, sliding her hands into her pockets. “I’m trying not to think about your mom being CIA.”

“ _Ex-_ CIA.”

“Right, the same way you’re ex-S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Piper smirked.

Melinda rolled her eyes. 

\---

As far as meeting the parents went, it wasn’t the most awful thing. Piper didn’t put her foot into her mouth too often, though Lian did seem disappointed in Piper’s utter inability to speak Mandarin. Understanding, she could do. She was even decent at writing (not that she could show that off at the dinner table). But speaking? Nuh uh. No way. She wasn’t going to butcher it and accidentally call her girlfriend’s mother a hog instead of beautiful.

“So,” Lian asked as she brought out dessert, “when are you and Melinda getting married?”

_Oh no no no._

“Mother,” Melinda said sharply.

“You can do that now, can you not?”

Oh God. Her girlfriend’s mother was the _you can do that now_ type. Probably totally unintentionally, but -

“We don’t have any plans for that in the near future,” Melinda answered for both of them.

“Yeah,” Piper yipped, voice two octaves too high.

“Why wait? Now that you’re out of S.H.I.E.L.D. -”

“Piper’s still working for them.”

“As a consultant,” Piper rushed to add, in case working for a non-CIA intelligence agency was going to be a dealbreaker for Lian. She raked a hand through her hair nervously, belatedly realizing she messed up whatever styling she had managed before leaving the house.

Lian might have been staring Piper down. Was probably staring Piper down. Was that the wrong thing to say?

“Alright,” she said. Melinda leapt on the opportunity to change the subject, and from then on, things were (mostly) smooth sailing.

\---

“So,” Piper said when they got back to the house. “How badly did I fuck up?”

Melinda blinked at her. “My mother loves you.”

“Your mother -?”

“You don’t really think she acts like that, do you? It was a test.” Melinda sighed. “She laid it on a bit thick with the ‘you can do that now, but -”

“A _test_!?” Piper yelped, interrupting whatever else Melinda was going to say.

“You passed.”

 _Well thank goodness for that!_

“You knew your mother was going to test me?”

“Suspected it,” Melinda answered, shrugging off her jacket. “Couldn’t warn you, though. She would’ve known if you knew.”

“Jesus.” Piper pushed a hand through her hair again. She was sure it was a rat’s nest by now, but she hadn’t been able to stop touching it nervously.

“Sorry.”

“Is your _dad_ going to test me?”

“Do you know how to play golf?”

“...I really can’t tell if you’re joking, Mel.”

“Suit yourself,” Melinda said, beginning to traipse up the stairs.

“Mel!” Piper called after her. “Mel, do I need to learn golf!? _Mel!?_ ”


End file.
